Canon HF100

Review: Canon HF100 (AVCHD)

Not just a truly solid-state camcorder but one that produces superb quality high definition video and has all the inputs and outputs we like to see on a serious camcorder. Can anything beat the Canon HF100?

Canon Vixia HF100 AVCHD Camcorder

Whilst not being over-burdened with buttons, dials and switches, the HF100 certainly has everything you’ll need to get a good job done with a minimum of fuss.

The HF100 utilises an impressive 1/3.2 inch, 3.3 megapixel, CMOS image sensor.

This generates its 1920 x 1080 high definition images which are then saved to an SD or SDHC memory card thanks to an increasingly popular video compression system called AVCHD.

Based upon the widely adopted MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 codec (compression/decompression system), the resulting HD movies look fabulous when displayed via HDMI or Component connections – particularly those recorded at the highest 17Mbps “FXP” setting. The latter will fill a 16GB SDHC card in just over 2 hours.

The three lesser XP+, SP and LP modes generate 1440 x 1080 resolution pictures, though even the lowest 2.5Mbps mode produces reasonable results when shooting scenes containing a minimum of movement.

Features

Those familiar with Canon’s other camera and camcorder products will welcome the ability to shoot with either Shutter Priority (Tv) or Aperture Priority (Av), thus allowing the device to match aperture to a pre-determined shutter speed and vice versa. Canon has also incorporated its own Optical-Shift Image Stabilisation, which does a very good job at smoothing out hand-held wobbliness.

The 12x optical zoom lens is supplemented by a reasonable 40x digital zoom. In contrast, its 200x digital zoom option is hardly worth inclusion on an otherwise fine product as it produces blocky, unrecognisable images.

Frontal View of the Canon Vixia HF100 AVCHD Camcorder

Electronic shutter options are consistent with other models at this price point, and range from 1/2000 sec up to 1/2 sec. The higher shutter speeds are very useful when shooting sport where the requirement is for sharp still frames or slow-motion. However, care must be taken with exposure, since a short exposure requires a significant increase in light, although this is one area where the AV and Tv priority settings come in useful. 

Contained in the Program AE options is Cine Mode, which can be used in conjunction with the PF25 option to provide a progressive frame recording rate of 25fps (24fps on the USA Vixia HF100 model) for an enhanced 25P (24P) mode to give a cinema-like feel to recorded clips.

The graphical menu system includes a “HUD” (head-up display) style interface which shows what changes are being made to the many operational functions available – of which the common will be focus, exposure, shutter speed, white balance, etc. So, for example, increasing or decreasing the microphone input level manually involves using the joystick to add a “+” or “-” values accordingly. It takes some getting used to, but it’s effective all the same. Overall, the cascading, multi-tiered, menu system is well designed and manageable both for recording and playback in movie or stills modes.

It’s a real shame there’s no manual focus ring, something that would make both the HF100 and HF10 real killers in the serious enthusiast camcorder market, but there’s some compensation in the fact that manual control over functions like focus, aperture, white balance and electronic shutter is reasonably user-friendly when you get used to the method of operating the mini-joystick whilst using the “head-up display” in the LCD screen. At first it seems like quite a task, but users will quickly adjust to it – especially to manual audio control which is managed by reference to linear audio meters onscreen. 

In order to compensate against strong light behind your subject, an Auto Backlight control will kick in (selectable by a switch on the bottom right of the LCD frame) in order to correct the exposure in favour of the foreground.

Performance

Overall control of manual settings is determined by Canon’s standard onscreen menu display system, with navigation and choices being made using the LCD frame-mounted mini-joystick controller. It’s a bit fiddly to begin with, but the ability to operate this with your left hand whilst gripping the camera with your right is a major plus point.

Additional record and play controls are mounted underneath the LCD screen, too, which is also very handy.

Main body and LCD screen of the Canon Vixia HF100

Shooting outdoors in bright sunshine under fully auto Easy mode and the HF100 provides really superb recordings overall. The zoom control is very responsive yet light to the touch, and with practice it’s quite easy to produce a smooth zoom in or out, complete with a ramping-up or down at the beginning and end of a shot. The zoom doesn’t clunk in or out as is often the case with consumer camcorders. When you need to zoom out very quickly to reframe a shot, it will let you do this.

It’s possible to set up a custom WB (white balance) by selecting this option in the menu and then pointing the camera at a piece of white paper (or other white reference point) and pressing SET until the flashing icons stops. This is accessed through the HF100’s FUNC button on the LCD panel. There’s a mini video light, too, which is also activated by selecting the appropriate option using the joystick.

In all, the HF100 performs superbly in almost all situations. Certainly, the generously-sized CMOS imaging chip does an exceedingly good job in good light; take the product indoors into less-than-perfect light and you’ll start to notice picture noise sooner than you would with equivalent 3CCD camcorders, however. That said, there’s a video light to assist this so it will be considered to be a problem only for the fussiest of users who have unrealistic expectations of a high definition consumer camcorder at this price point.

Conclusion

At its highest 17Mbps quality setting, the clips recorded with the HF100 are absolutely superb when played back not only on a HDTV display via HDMI but even when displayed using the supplied AV connectors on a 28″ Widescreen CRT monitor, too. Its Dolby Digital 2-channel (AC-3 2ch) sound quality is also very good indeed, with clarity and stereo separation being well up to expectations from such a product.

Whilst it’s fair to say that a great many users will have no interest in connecting an external microphone (either via the 3.5mm jack or on the intelligent accessory shoe) or even headphones (actually very useful as a means of checking wind-impact on the built-in mic even if monitoring with iPod-style earbuds), it’s also worth noting that there will be many other users for whom the inclusion of these features will make the solid-state HF100 a very attractive proposition indeed, and for that Canon has to be congratulated in coming up with such an excellent pair of products.

There are only two words to describe the Canon HF100 – absolutely fabulous!

Originally Reviewed by: Colin Barrett. May 2008. Canon HF100 images courtesy of Canon UK. This edited version uploaded Dec 2009.